Friday Five: 2012-02-17

February 17th, 2012

Hey all. Long time, no post. I can’t promise that I’m back in action full time. Today is my last day on the current job. Next Wednesday is the first day on the new job. It may take a while to iron things out as far as scheduling and what-not goes. Since I get to slack the rest of today, I can post a Friday Five for this week! Here goes….

I’m getting setup and prepping for a campaign such as one of these. It’s a little sandbox-y, a little guided, a little tree-like structure. It’s an idea I came up with about 12 years ago, and just now found my one page of notes about it. This post really helped me solidify and structure some of my ideas.

Bah. GMs should game for the fun of it. There should be zero compensation for them. They’re playing a game after all! The one time I asked for money from my players was when I ran my very first Top Secret S/I game. The character sheet was 17 x 11, folded in half and printed on both sides. It was a little 8 1/2 x 11 booklet thing. I had them photocopied at the place next to our game shop, and the character sheets ran me $1 each. I had 10 players and $11.00 in my pocket. I barely had enough cash for a soda and candy bar left over. I asked, very nicely, if the players would mind chipping in a buck each to offset my costs. I told them that if they did, the character sheet was theirs to keep forever. They were buying it after all. It worked out well, and everyone tossed me a buck for their character sheet. That was back in high school. I wouldn’t need to do that now that I have a great-paying full-time job.

This is a grand idea! Add some wondrous items to your world that aren’t magical (or maybe they are, but the players can’t stuff them into their backpack.) It’s a great way to add flavor to a gaming world. Check out the post for more details.